Reducing Draw Weght on a Favorite Bow

[MajorJim]

Had an interesting discussion today.  All of us have or have had a favorite bow.  And all of us will get a little older.  There comes a point where that heavy draw weight will be a little harder to pull, a little tougher on the old joints, and leave the muscles a little sorer.

The guy I was talking to had the draw weight reduced on his bow.  Rather than sell it and buy one with less draw, he kept his old favorite.

Is this a common thing?  Sure has a lot of appeal.  For some of us, letting go of an old favorite is like taking Old Yeller for that last walk.  

I know you can take some off the sides, make the limbs thinner, but rather than experiment on a trusty old sidekick, are there boywers out there who do a bang up job with this sort of thing?

I have a Sarrels Blueridge longbow. I ordered it to go on my first trip to Africa. I purposely ordered it heavier (55@28) thinking I could work up to it in the 9 months i had till my trip. No way that was going to happen. I had him take 5# off and it was still too much. I then had him take another 5# off and now it is perfect - 50#@ my 29.5" DL. I love this bow and could not think of giving it up. I guess when i get older and need to go down in weight I will just have to order a new set of limbs (thank goodness it is a takedown).

Bisch

[Bjorn]

Sure get a hold of 'the bow hospital' it is on here someplace. His name is Whip and he also owns Prairie Traditions.

[owlbait]

Chuch Deshler (TwoTracks) does that kind of work also. Nice work and reasonable prices.

[Orion]

Most folks are reluctant to take off more than about 10% of the bow's weight.

[LimBender]

I think bowdoc does that as well, but maybe only older bows.

[Apex Predator]

It really depends on the bow.  Some that are overbuilt could stand to have 15# taken off.  On the other hand, the orginal bowyer may have been struggling to make weight initially and already slimmed her down.  It's best to contact the bowyer who built her. Five pounds is pretty doable on most though.  When you start removing wood/fiberglass you face the risk of altering the dynamic tiller of the limbs.  Depending on the bow, you could ruin her, or even make her better!